Staged Pressure Accumulation in a Partitioned Accumulator

A pressure accumulator allows system designers to increase the potential energy of a trapped gas or fluid, and to release that stored energy as required by the working circuit. Pressure accumulators also serve as an important component in mobile and industrial hydraulic circuits, acting to suppress fluid surges generated by abrupt movement of the load.

The design of pressure accumulators can be modified somewhat to provide additional functionality, however. A partitioned accumulator is described in this paper which can be used with a pilot operated valve to accumulate fluid in several pressure ranges, and can supply fluid in the pressure range required by the working circuit. This design provides for the storage of separate volumes of pressurized fluid, while allowing controlled pressure interaction between the fluid volumes.